The last day to register to vote in the upcoming general election on Nov. 2 is this Saturday.

The Lafayette County Circuit Clerk’s Office will be open from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday to accommodate last-minute voter registrations.

Those wishing to vote absentee must have their ballots mailed in enough time for them to be at the Circuit Clerk’s Office by Nov. 1. The office will be open 8 a.m. to noon on Oct. 23 and Oct. 30 to allow voters to come in and vote absentee. (September 29, 2010, Page 1)

Richard Shivers, owner of Shivers Towing, is tossing his hat into the ring for the race of County Coroner. A paramedic since 1985, Shivers says he has wanted to run for the County Coroner office for a long time, but did not want to run against long-time friend Lonnie Weaver. Now that Weaver resigned from his post, Shivers announced that he was going to run for the position. (September 13, 2010, Page 1A)

Former Lafayette County coroner Lonnie Weaver has qualified to run in November to regain the position he resigned from last year after pleading guilty to embezzling funds from the Mississippi Coroner-Medical Examiners Association. (August 23, 2010, Page 1A)

From his work as a civil rights activist, who was instrumental in integrating Oxford public schools, to working with felons as a U.S. probation officer, to serving as a Lafayette County Planning Commissioner, Leonard Thompson’s death Monday has been called a major loss for the community as a whole.
Thompson died Monday at about 10:30 a.m. after going into anaphylactic shock when he was stung by a wasp while putting his lawnmower up in his garage at his Highway 334 home. (June 23, 2010, Page 1A)

Leonard Thompson, 73, died this morning at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi after being stung by a wasp, according to Lafayette County Coroner Rocky Kennedy.

Kennedy said Thompson went outside to put away his lawn mower. He came back inside his home on Highway 334 and told his wife he had been stung by a wasp.

“He collapsed moments later,” Kennedy said.

Thompson, who was instrumental in integrating the Oxford School District, was the first minority to graduate from the University of Mississippi graduate program in 1967. He became a principal at Central High the year the schools integrated and was given the vice-principal job at Oxford High School. Funeral arrangements are incomplete with Hodges-Freeman Funeral Home of Oxford.

Scott Franklin, 35, was killed Monday night when he lost control of his pickup while traveling on County Road 143 off Old Sardis Road, according to Lafayette County Sheriff’s Investigator Scott Mills. Friends will remember his smile, good sense of humor and big heart. (April 27, 2010, Page 1)

Henry White, 60, was found at his Highway 7 South home with multiple and extensive wounds all over his body, according to Lafayette County Coroner Rocky Kennedy. He was dead by the time deputies arrived at about 1:30 p.m. His wife, Lou Ann White has been charged with his murder. (April 8, 2010, Page 1)

The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the murder of a 69-year-old man who was allegedly beaten to death in the county at about 9 p.m. Thursday.
Derald “Pete” Connell, 69, died from injuries he received from an assault that took place off Highway 6 East, in the area of the county near the Brittany Woods subdivision, Investigator Scott Mills said. (April 5, 2010, Page 1A)

To the world he was an author but for many in Oxford he was something more: friend and teacher, a fisherman and a dad. Writer Barry Hannah died on Monday afternoon of natural causes, according to the Lafayette County coroner, at his home in Oxford. It was just weeks shy of his 68th birthday and days before his work and life were to be honored at the 17th annual Oxford Conference on the Book.